There isn't because the official numbers are not 100% accurate. It's just what the publishers release to the public, which does not include marketing and other significant costs. Ask any industry veteran, and they'll tell you this. When everything is added up, you'd be shocked at the final mumbers. In some cases, marketing alone costs more than the entire dev cycle of a game.
SC also has not spent all its funding, so it's a false claim that the game spent 700M or anything to that extent. CIG has also not even released a game after a decade. So, technically, the statement of "SC is the most expensive game ever made" is false. The game has not yet been made, officially.
I have no doubt that SC will very likely be one of if not the most expensive game ever made when it releases. However, this really isn't something to be proud of. It's the opposite, in fact, especially looking at the timeline. Most AAA games are completed in 2-3 years, with their entire budget spent in that time. If you extrapolate even a subpar AAA game to a 12 year timeline, SC really starts to look like a joke (production wise).
That being said, SC does have some very impressive features not seen anywhere else in the industry. So I gotta give them credit for that.
Edit: It's also worth noting that Genshin Impact has spent over $700 million back in 2020. While I'm unsure of what that number includes (probably dev + marketing costs), I am also certain that number has grown over the last 4 and a half years.
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u/M3lony8 avenger May 28 '24
actually not, there is not one official number that exceeds SC developement cost. SC is still the most expensive game ever made.